Cassia and Magnar leave shortly after we conclude the lesson. I spend the last hours of the day, grinding the dagger and polishing it. The next day, after an assembly we were dismissed. I returned to the tower with Magnar.

  We managed to finish making the rough version of the rest of the daggers in record time, cycling through the pieces of heating metal. I hammered until my hand went soft and I couldn’t feel it anymore. Whenever I stopped supplying it with aether a grimace would adorn my face.

  Cassia wouldn’t come for a few days since I told her to focus on meditating and finding an upper classman specialized in arrays to help us. By the end of the day, I had two finished daggers and three more ready to be grinded and finished.

  While I was taking care of the finishing touches on the daggers, Magnar stood close by and meditated. His progress was astonishing, his breath reaching lower almost perfect by the end of the day. I imagined how it would be to have a disciple before, but I never imagined that I’d be having one this monstrous.

  The second day, or the first day of the new week we had history of the kingdom, mathematics and literature. In the end the only helpful ones were history, if I coupled what was taught with a lot of thinking and geography, and literature. The only problem? Our literature teacher was a woman. Her choice for a teaching manual was… A sort of Chivalric Romance…

  Basically, there was no syllabus. The teacher would pick a book of their choice and for several months if not for the entire year, that was all we would be discussing… We had to read this badly written form of Propaganda, that made power seem like virtue. I couldn’t find anything that followed any shred of reality.

  It created a form of fairy tale like world, that ignored politics, power plays, arranged marriages, suppression through status and only showed one side of the story. There was only the wonderful talented warrior felling beasts with ease, and pledging eternal servitude to young noble ladies.

  Seeing this book and learning that they were the main, leisure reads for women I no longer felt like it was Cassia’s fault she was entitled… She grew being told she was… Luckily for me, I could finish reading the book in just three classes and then… I was free… I would show up only at the end of the week in the eighth day, if there was a test.

  After classes I spent the time polishing the last daggers. I made sure all of them had the same top tier quality as the last one. As a final touch I used some nails, heated them and hammered them together to make a dragon face. I heated it again and pressed it onto the pommels of the daggers, rolling it a bit on the surface to obtain an even marking.

  I proceeded with the evening preparations then went to bed. Next day I went to the Colosseum like arena to attend the combat class. The professor dismissed me early after having me do some laps and some pushups. With the extra free time I went to see the master blacksmith Heston.

  I found him taking a rest, an alcoholic beverage in his hand. By its looks, it was beer, yet the earthy and fruity scent told me otherwise. I approached him with a measured step.

  “Good morning!” I greet him, with the daggers all strapped on a band across the front of my body, all sheathed and carrying my new made sigil.

  “It’s you boy! Didn’t expect you back by yourself and so soon. Are those for sale?”

  “Yes.” I pull the daggers out one by one and present them to Heston.

  He takes and examines them one by one, putting each down next to him with a nod. He keeps the last one in his hand and stares at my marking, at the dragon head like imprint. He twirled the dagger between his fingers then used it to chip the chair’s armrest.

  “These are all good.” He taps on the marking. “These are usually initials of the Forgers. Haven’t heard of people using drawings before, but… What is this supposed to be?”

  “A dragon head viewed from the front…”

  “Oh… Now that you say it… I do see some resemblance. Not a lot, but it is there… Well you’ll know from now on.”

  “Will you still take them to sell?”

  “Hell yeah, boy! The last one brought in a nice little profit over my special haggling.”

  “Glad to hear that, then it won’t be a problem for me to receive the money.”

  “Not at all.” He said and rose to his feet and went inside. He came back out with four gold coins he handed to me.

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  “Is this all you wanted?” Asked master Heston while sitting back in his chair.

  “No… I’d like to ask about monster materials. I’ve seen them used, but not for the blades… And I don’t exactly know how or why they are used. My master only said that they can help bridge ranks and obtain higher quality artefacts…”

  “He isn’t wrong… But the main reason they are used is that even monsters of the second stage have an attribute. Monsters are creatures that develop and appear purely due to aether. They grow and learn to gather it, however their bodies react different from ours.”

  “So that’s why you said that my weapons had no attribute…”

  “Yes. Plants can become monsters too. Using wood from a monster as a handle would still provide an attribute. Only plant monsters are rare, and their attribute is random. Even if two of the same tree species evolve, they won’t have the same attribute.”

  “Are beasts different then?”

  “Yes. Beasts evolve in a more orderly manner, although their species do split sometimes upon evolution. Their numbers are much higher though so there are most certainly more monsters of the same species.”

  “Alright… But why use monster materials and not formations? Aren’t formations easier to replicate? And the materials… Don’t have to bite…”

  “Monster materials are sometimes used in formations too from what I’ve heard… But that’s not the point. You see formations have an effect. They are limited to their own rank in effects and their effect is fixed. Monster materials however offer the possibility to alter the way the attribute behaves.”

  “Alright…”

  “Furthermore… No matter how much aether you pour through a formation, the strength of its effect stays the same, while a weapon made with monster materials, will have stronger effects. Even if it will break shortly, it can be used. A second-grade dagger can be used by a third stage person to produce a third stage attack. It is not sustainable, but it works.”

  “Doesn’t that mean that based on the equipment one has… Casters don’t have an advantage even in lower stages?”

  “That is a bit of a hassle to think about. It always comes down to individuals. Besides casters have staffs and may use other forms of equipment too.”

  “Did you ever make a staff for a caster before?” I asked my curiosity stirred since I’ve yet to heart anything about this.

  “No, staffs unlike other weapons, usually use only monster materials and require focused expertise to make. You need a lot more knowledge on aether transference then you need to make a sword or armor. They usually incorporate an actual beast core, used to add more aether to a spell…”

  “That is… interesting.” I said, my eyes without focus as my thoughts soared.

  “Don’t think about it, boy. It’s best to focus on your forging, no need to go out of your way to make staffs. You can earn enough from smithing.”

  “Eh, it’s not bad to have more skills… Besides, if I’ll ever want a staff… Won’t it be easier to just make it myself? Compared to finding someone capable of making what I want of course.”

  “You sound like you’re insulting staff makers… Well, I warned you. It’s an expensive trade to learn. More so than smithing. I really don’t recommend you go down that way, but I can’t stop you.”

  “Don’t worry, I’ll first ensure I have a stable enough income or the strength to procure what I need myself… I won’t throw all I learned to the wind for something new. You can rely on my crafts to earn you more in the future.”

  A small smirk appeared on his face. “That’s what I like to hear! Good then, if you are aware I don’t have anything more to tell you. Besides I’m sure you’d learn all this in the academy.”

  “But how does one bind the monster materials to the metal? Without breaking the material or it losing its properties…”

  “That… I can’t tell you. The thing is… The technique to ensure the connection differs from smith to smith. It depends on your understanding of aether. I really won’t tell you. It will only cut your possibility of finding your way. If I see it is worse than mine… Then I may share it, but otherwise it may only drag you down if you learn the method from someone else.”

  “I understand…” I uttered the words with a bit of regret. “Thanks for everything you shared. In the future, where should I go procure the materials?”

  “The mercenary guild takes requests sometimes… They mainly exist as a big, centralized force for communication with nobles to ensure an addition to their fighting forces, but they also take requests if you pay enough… Otherwise if you go to the market and look for hunter stalls you can usually get up to third stage materials.”

  “Thank you! Have a nice day!” I left hurriedly for the Tower. By now, Magnar should be out of the training class. I needed his help to haul the new batch of renovation and forging materials. It was not yet time to try to forge out of monster parts, but that time wasn’t far off.

  In the end the class was still going. Seeing this I instead went to the formations and arrays office to analyze the gathering formation. Until now no insight into its functioning mechanism came to me. I could understand other formations, or rather they did not make me as interested, but I couldn’t let this one go.

  After two hours of observation and sensing, I still got nothing. Magnar found me there and we left for the market. My frustration with that array only grew each time I saw it.

  In the end I went and bought everything else needed for the tower. It only made my day worse. Stone was manageable, iron was cheap, coal, clay, lime, all were alright in prices, but lumber? Lumber was sucking me dry. Thirteen large coppers for it all. It was the biggest purchase.

  That day I ended up going multiple times to the market and transporting everything back to the Tower with Magnar. An entire gold coin was gone just like that. But at least I had supplies to keep forging and to build everything else needed. Be it a kiln or a smelting furnace I had all I needed.

  Now only the array remained. As I prepared for sleep, I prayed that the price for that wouldn’t be too exaggerated. With only three gold coins left and with myself still having to eat those crappy meals from the mess hall… I couldn’t take out ten gold coins for it.

  To my surprise, luck was on my side on this one and my reasoning was sound. Cassia did not disappoint in finding someone.

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  ?? Author's Question:

  Master Heston claims that without Monster Materials (Attributes), even a masterpiece sword is just a "disposable" weapon against higher-tier beasts. Do you agree with this "Element Meta," or do you think pure physical damage is being underestimated?